question- what are "posh" names?

[thecaroline]

I'm not from the UK, so I was wondering what everyone means when they say a name is "posh." Like, upperclass, but which names in particular? Names like Arabella, Charles, etc.?

Tarquin?

Crispian. Sholto. Tara.

Tarquin, Octavius, Otto and certain nn too, like Binky.

Clarissa.

I've always thought Humphrey sounded quite posh

Araminta, Giles, Piers. Hugo is a little bit posh.

StJohn

And yes, they mean aristocratic sounding or, more to the point, not used by the working class.

Yes it means upper class/aristocratic/would fit in at boarding school.

In the book 'Freakonomics there is a chapter that argues that a 'posh' name gradually gets democratised as more and more people use it in their quest to be original. Eventually it falls out of fashion because it is too popular. It then gets rehabilitated some years later when people look for something that feels fresh. Obviously this isn't true of all 'posh' names, and some names are perpetually popular and classic but commonly used by people that are perceived as posh.

So I think someone on here said recently that 'Isabella' used to be posh but is very mainstream now. I don't know whether that is true, but it gives you an idea. I would say that Annabel and Georgina also fit into that category. Charles might be in here too but I don't know how popular it has been over the long term.

Something like 'Catherine' is classic and used by everyone, but has a long history of being used by royalty. Similarly David (Cameron) undoubtedly comes from a posh background but has a very mainstream name.

Posh names that tend to stay posh might are likely to be a bit obscure. StJohn and Araminta as a pp said. I would throw in:
Dougal
Mungo
Camilla

Caspian
Jasper
Toby
Elizabeth

I always think James is posh

I'm only basing my list on the people I know...I don't know for sure as I'm not posh...

Really posh people have very traditional names (often quite dull ones) and don't give a stuff about whether it's in frequent use (names like Isabella continue in posh use because a few years of popularity will never offset hundreds of solid use).

OTOH, outlandish nns abound.

Edmund

Thing is, the middle class bust their guts seeking out the poshest names they can find in the baby names book and so nowadays Araminta and Persephone will almost certainly be middle class while the real posh people stick to trad names like John and Sophie.

Quentin?

Annoyingly posh: Rupert, Tarquin, Miles, Giles, Charles (if known as Charles, not Charlie), Lucian, Jocasta, Augusta, Lucinda, Camilla

A bit posh but normal enough not to attract teasing: Henry, Sebastian, Toby, Marcus, Oliver, Jeremy, Julia, Lucy, Lydia, Caroline

Jonty- only posh boys are called this. Most of the rest seem to be called Will.

Rupert, Felicity, Quentin, Tarquin, Arabella, Araminta, Pandora, Jonty (as a nn for Jonathan, but Jonathan itself isn't posh), Lucinda, Hugo, Sebastian (kind of), Piers, Camilla, Jemima, Rollo, Julian, Monty

Also Greek/Greek mythology names, Atalanta, Hector, Ptolemy etc.

You are a crowd of unwashed peasants as not one person has mentioned the Daddy of posh names.

Peregrine.

I await the day that Peregrine is taken to the grimy bosom of the masses.

I think people have different perceptions of what is posh. In a million years I wouldn't say Lucy, James, Caroline, Catherine, Sophie, Isabel, Elizabeth etc are posh.

Hugo, Sebastion, etc to my ear are people 'trying' to be posh.

Tarquin, Rupert etc are posh IMO.

Some if the names I think of as being 'posh' are actually relatively normal and not OTT. Examples include: Henrietta, Phillip, Timothy, Charles, Heidi, James, Catherine, Lucinda, Elizabeth, Nicholas, Benjamin (all of whom are names of people I know who went to reasonably well-known boarding schools).

The only Rupert I've ever known went to a large comprehensive school in Yorkshire, and wasn't remotely posh.

'Posh' to me now means piers, Persephone, Percy, araminta etc - names that would get you laughed out of your local comprehensive.

Where I live, even just 10 years ago names such as Eva, Emily, Harry, Archie or Olivia would have been seen as posh yet now are ten a penny.

The poshest people I have ever known (think eton etc) were all your average Thomas, Jonny, Guy, James, Tim's.

Posh names to me are Charles, Rupert, Tarquin, Sebastian (although becoming less so), Hugo, Jonty, Augustus, Piers. Araminta, Lucinda, Henrietta, Jemima, Georgina, Margot.

I know of a felicity - common as muck!

That made me

Poor common Felicity.